We often walk into our homes and notice bad smells. It is not always necessarily a bad smell caused by you, but rather a stale smell which is sometimes inevitable. There are numerous products available on the market which can be purchased to ensure that your house smells good and remains to smell good even after you have left it. However, these can be expensive, so purchasing these regularly can cost you more than you can imagine. Lucky enough, there are home remedies which can substitute the products found on the supermarket shelves. This means that you can have a great smelling house at a cheaper cost – bingo!

This article will mention a few remedies which you may find useful. There are many more than will be mentioned in this article, so if none of these tickle your fancy then you can always research further online or in home magazines.

The first way of changing the way your house smells is to cook. Cooking something that smells delicious will in turn make your home smell delicious. Cooking is probably a less desirable fragrance to have diffusing through your rooms, especially bedrooms. So baking may be your solution. Everyone loves the smell of freshly bakes cookies and cupcakes. However, not everyone has the time or skill to bake on a regular basis, all with the hope of having a pleasant smelling house.

Boiling two pans of water will be the starting point of nearly every single home remedy. Adding a slice of fresh orange and lemon will provide the fragrance. Allowing the water to simmer with the lemon and orange slices will release a citrus smell, which many people find refreshing and desirable.

If you fancy the smell of cookies and cupcakes but do not fancy baking, adding a few drops of vanilla or almond extract to the above citrus mixture can give you a similar odour to that produced by baking.

If you are more of a cinnamon type of person, the same principle as above can be applied. Simmering a stick of cinnamon in boiling water for ten minutes can leave your house smelling great and homey.

The advantage to using the boiling water method is that the smell lasts for a long time, and creating the fragrance is not expensive or massively time consuming. You can also try to add other items to the boiling water according to your desirable smell e.g. mint leaves.

Neutralising the smell in one room e.g. the bathroom can accentuate a pleasant smell in another room e.g. the living room. By placing a cup of boiling, steaming water in one room, the odour in that particular room can be neutralised.

You can make your own odour removal spray such as Febreeze by using fabric softener. Simply find an old spray bottle, or purchase a new one (they are relatively inexpensive on websites such as eBay or amazon) and fill it with a mixture of water and fabric softener. The volumes of each depend on the strength of the fragrance you are trying to achieve. So if you were after a more subtle fragrance, you would dilute the fabric softener quite a bit in comparison to if you were trying to achieve a strong smell. Simply give the mixture a good shake and spray on all fabric e.g. curtains, sofas, bed sheets and even carpets.

Similarly, you can use a mixture of water, vodka and essential oils to create an air and fabric refresher such as above. With home remedies, making your home smell great no longer has to cost a mini fortune!